


Joy Buzzer

by kazjaurelia



Series: Writing Practice Drabbles [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Electrocution, Explosions, Fight Scene, Hurt Lance (Voltron), I Tried, Injured Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Whump, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, Langst, M/M, Sorry Not Sorry, keith cares, lance gets blown through a wall, lance is hurt bad, more tags to come, stubborn lance, whoops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-11-18 22:46:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11300421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazjaurelia/pseuds/kazjaurelia
Summary: “Lance, is it clear?” Keith calls as he turns back towards the relic, only to see Lance’s gloved fingertips millimeters from the plane like object. As his fingertips make contact, a spark arches between the relic and Lance’s chest, almost as if in slow motion.“Lance!” Keith’s voice is lost in the roar of the pulsing air that knocks Keith back through the opening of the tunnel.





	1. Road Trip

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of a Tumblr prompt: Lance gets shocked and his limbs are temporarily numb and tingly, but he doesn't mention it because the paladins are doing a hasty retreat. However, as running on numb legs tends to go, he takes a nasty fall/twists an ankle badly(and maybe hits his head on the way down) even better if he can't coordinate himself enough to get back up o his own, falling more and getting frustrated tears.

“-ance? He- with me?”

It sounds distant, and somewhat familiar. It’s almost as if cotton is shoved in Lance’s ears. Where does he know that voice from? Is it someone close to him? He pushes forward, against the flowing current. Every step, closer to the answer. The current stops, and he stumbles forward onto his hands and knees. There’s a hand on his shoulder, shaking him. 

One Hour Earlier

“How much further is it?” Lance almost groans. “We’ve been walking forever.”

“Lance, take this seriously. It’s not some road trip.” Pidge doesn’t even have to look back for Lance to feel the eye roll. Her full attention is on the holo-map in her hand.

Lance quiets down after that and continues on walking in tandem with the rest of the team. Foliage passes overhead, waving in the humidity of the planet they were trekking on. Bird like creatures skim the treetops while emitting a shrieking call to their friends. Lance pushes leafy arms out of the way as he follows Hunk. 

“We’re here,” Pidge calls out from the front of the line. 

Sure enough, a temple like structure is visible up ahead. It’s a strain to decipher where jungle ends and the temple starts. The temple appears more than willing to co-exist with the surrounding life. Vines creep up the walls, around pillars, and over window sills. Budding flowers peek out of cracks in the stone walls and pavement. Even the local animals have moved into the temple, if only on the outer edges.

“What exactly are we looking for again?” Hunk asks. “‘Cause I kinda don’t want to touch the wrong thing and, oh, I don’t know. Die horribly.”

“It’s an artifact that the locals need for a ritual. It’s supposed to give blessings during rituals. And the relic is vital to the Jeing in an event like changing chiefs, moving the village to a new location, or forming alliances,” Pidge explains. “Which is why we need it if we want the alliance.”

She pulls up a new image on the holo-projector. Lance’s first thought is that it looks kind of like a toy airplane. The slender football shaped middle piece has two elongated, triangular wings jutting out and slanting back. At the rear, a wedge connects to the prolate spheroid and curves upwards. All over, swirls and dots intermingle with a script that looks similar to Arabic. 

“We need to be careful with it. We don’t really know what it does. Don’t touch it with your skin. Use the bag or have your gloves on,” Shiro instructs. “Once you find and retrieve it, let the other group know and we’ll all regroup back here. Alright?”

Everyone nods and the team breaks off into the two groups. Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk cross to one entrance, while Lance and Keith cross to the entrance closer to them. 

“Keep up, Mullet.”

Keith only grunts in reply as he takes off behind Lance through the archway. The torch perched on the front of Lance’s riffle casts shadows down the corridor, eerily illuminating cobwebs. Keith flips on his own torch and pans it behind him. 

“I’m getting a very ‘Indiana Jones’ vibe from this place. D’ya think there’s any booby traps? Like the giant rolling rock?”

“Lance, pay attention,” Keith scolds checking the way they just came. “If there are any traps, I don’t want to walk into it.”

Lance stops so suddenly, Keith plows right into him, muttering a curse in surprise.

“That’s a dollar in the swear jar.”

Keith takes in a breath of air to utter a retort, but as he sees the cavern they’re standing in, it vanishes. The cavern definitely gives off and Indiana Jones vibe. The space is wide and tentacles of sunlight stream in from holes in the ceiling above. Vines criss cross the architecture along the walls and across the ceiling. Steps lead up in a pyramid shape to a pedestal, whereon the artifact is perched. The plane like object is irradiated by a pinpoint of light.

“I’ll call it in. Check the area, Lance.” 

Lance nods and surveys the area, all while creeping closer up the steps to the object. There seems to be nothing around the artifact that could be harmful. Then, why did the locals never come and get it themselves? It wasn’t even that hard to find. Just a long, boring hike through a swamp of humidity. Maybe there was something the locals didn’t tell them. Lance shrugs as he brushes off the thoughts and reaches out for the artifact. 

“Shiro. We found it.”

“Alright, bag it up and meet us back at the rendezvous.”

“Lance, is it clear?” Keith calls as he turns back towards the relic, only to see Lance’s gloved fingertips millimeters from the plane like object. As his fingertips make contact, a spark arches between the relic and Lance’s chest, almost as if in slow motion.

“Lance!” Keith’s voice is lost in the roar of the pulsing air that knocks Keith back through the opening of the tunnel. The wind doesn’t seem to stop as the wave of heat plows into Keith next, seeming to last for hours. When it finally does relent, dust is shaking down the tunnel opening. A layer of the powder seems to be coating the back of Keith’s throat as he pushes himself off the ground and staggers back into the cavern. 

“Lance?” What happened? Rubble lays strewn across the floor and holes pepper the ceiling. The relic is gone from it’s spot on the top of the pyramid.

Lance is gone, too.


	2. Retreat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took a little longer to write than I thought. My family had a bit of a hectic week and I didn't have much spare time. I fixed the formatting, so it doesn't look all the way awful. I hope y'all enjoy and give me some feedback on what you want to see next.

“Shiro. We found it.”

“Alright bag it up and meet us back at the rendezvous.” 

Shiro turns back to where Pidge and Hunk had stopped ahead in the tunnel, taking sips from their water packs. 

“Lance and Keith found the artifact. We’re going to meet them back at the rendezvous, then head back to the village to finish up the treaty.”

The group slides the water packs back into their spot and begin the journey back towards the rendezvous, still scouting out the hallway for anything out of place. As Shiro pans the wall with his torch, he listens to the sounds of the temple and the nature lurking outside. Water drips somewhere behind him. An animal scurries through the passage in front of them, the sound carrying. As they near the exit, a wind blows gently down the tunnel. It’s almost calming. That is, until the wind switches directions, coming from inside the temple, and the speed picks up violently with the temperature. The three paladins quickly crouch down in a huddle as debris and dirt races over them. It lasts for moments before it stops instantly and the sound of silence fills the narrow space. 

Sound returns in the form of Pidge coughing. “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Shiro states as he rises from the crouch,” but, it probably isn’t good news. Is everyone okay?” Shiro takes in the state of Pidge and Hunk’s armour, as well as his own. A fine layer of dust is layered on top, and it seeps into the cracks. Their faces are painted an ashy grey, as is their hair. 

“I’m good.”

“Same here,” Hunk huffs as he stands up. 

“Keith? Are you and Lance okay?” Shiro tries over comms. Only a burst of static replies as dust trickles down from the ceiling of the passageway. Shiro curses.

“Shiro?”

He sighs in relief before replying. “Are you and Lance okay?’

Keith pauses on the other side of link as rocks scuffle in the background. Keith is probably moving to a more stable spot. But, that means he was very close to the explosion, meaning Lance was, too. “I can’t see Lance.”

Shiro motions for Hunk and Pidge to head outside and do a safety check while he talks to Keith. “What happened?”

“Lance went to get the relic,” Keith explains as he continues moving over the rocks. “He went to grab it and it just blew up. I don- Lance!” A scramble can be heard over the link as Shiro hears Keith slide down some rocks. 

“I found him, Shiro.” The relief flooding Keith’s voice is clear. “He doesn’t look too bad.”

Shiro’s reply is cut off as Hunk comes back into the tunnel. “Shiro, we have a bit of a problem. There’s a Galra cruiser coming at us and it’s coming fast.”

“Keith, we have a problem.”

\-------

Sound filters in. Smoke permeates the air around Lance and the owner of the hand shaking him. Keith is in front of him, a worried look on his face as he speaks. Dust is ingrained in his mullet and armour. Lance takes a peek at the cavern, but only sees pieces of rubble and dust 

“-ance? He- with me?” The world seems to spin and fade for a moment and Keith disappears. “Lance?” Keith is back, closer this time. “Hey, you okay?”

“Wha’ happened?” Lance slurs. It’s a little hard to form coherent words when your mouth feels like you’ve eaten a pillow, apparently. 

“You touched the thing and it went off like the Fourth of July.”

So that’s why his body feels like he crashed to Earth in a bolt of lightning. Ouch. 

“Oh.”

“Oh? Lance, you blew up part of a temple,” Keith states, the vexation seeping into his voice. “There isn’t time for this. The Galra are marching up here right now. We’ve gotta go.” Keith start to pull Lance up, causing his world to spin. But, like Keith said, there isn’t time for Lance to mess something up again and be a burden. He’s got to soldier through it. It was Lance’s fault anyways, wasn’t it?

So, Lance manages to stay on his feet once Keith gets him up, even with the world spinning around him and his limbs tingling. He’s determined to finish the mission, then sleep for about 10,000 years. 

“Come on,” Keith says over his shoulder as he starts up the small mound of debris in the way of the tunnel. “Shiro said to head to the rendezvous, then head to the lions.” 

Lance moves to step forward when the relic catches his eye to his left. He pulls out the bag before sliding it in and packing it away. At least the mission would be a success, even if the temple was damaged and they had to retreat from the Galra. 

\-------

It only takes them about fifteen minutes to finally get out of the temple, and by that time, the tingling in Lance’s limbs has intensified and invited it’s friend numbness for a party. As he follows Keith to the rendezvous point, it feels like he’s walking through molasses, forcing his legs to push forward. The humidity pushes down on his shoulders, making the effort put into walking and breathing in oxygen that much harder. 

“We’re almost to our lions, Shiro. We’ll meet you guys up-”

“No. Head back to the village.” Shiro orders. “Deliver the relic, then come fight.”

Keith huffs at the ground. “We don’t have it. It blew up after Lance touched it. We need to help you fight.”

“Actually,” Lance wheezes,”I got it.”

“Good. Get it back to Allura and the Jeing, then meet up with us.” And with that, Shiro signed off to focus on the battle. Keith doesn’t say a word as he crawls into Red. Lance turns towards Blue, almost too suddenly as black spots dance across his eyes. He manages to get into Blue and begin piloting her back towards the village as waves of comfort and concern come from the lion. 

“It’s okay, Blue. I’ll be fine until the mission is over.” But really, Lance is barely managing to stay standing. His legs and arms haven’t stopped tingling and numbness is beginning to spread. But, he had to be okay. He couldn’t mess up the mission any more than he already had. He had to do something right. 

As they land, the small party of delegates gathered behind Allura shift on their feet as their hair is tossed and whipped by the wind of the lions. In the distance, in the forest behind the village, blasts from the lions and smoke can be seen rising from under the tree line. Allura strides closer the Blue’s maw to meet Lance as he emerges with the relic. He’s noticed that the black spots have returned to his vision as he walks down the ramp to Allura with the object in hand. He just has to make it fifteen meters to where Allura is across the small meeting square. Fifteen meters. 

“Keith, Lance, you have some of the Galra fleet coming towards you at the village. Be ready,” Pidge calls. Lance looks up at Pidge’s information to see one of the slender black and red fighter ships zooming towards them. As he watches more dots grow in the sky and form into a squad of the slender ships. 

“Well, this isn’t good. I’ll hold them off and you deliver the relic,” Keith announces as he climbs back into his lion. The ships continue growing closer, ignoring the green lion flying after them. The cannon on the leading ship becomes visible as soon as it is within shooting distance. Red takes of to meet the fighter, but is intercepted but a small squad from out of nowhere. 

Lance just has to make it to Allura. Keep her safe. Deliver the relic.

“Lance, look out!”

Lance turns towards where Keith is supposed to be stopping the cannon ship, but the Red lion is missing from the picture. The picture begins to change as the cannon powers up and discharges, aiming at Allura and the group of delegates. 

“Allura!” He’s running now. The air seems to have disappeared, making it hard for Lance to breathe enough air in to make it to Allura. 

Keith watches as the cannon goes off.


	3. NEW CHAPTER TO CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF OUR BOY

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, Lance gets beat up a lot. Happy birthday, my boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry that it took so long to write this, I'm still learning how to write fight scenes. As you can see in this chapter, I still need to work on it. Constructive criticism and smiles are welcome.

Lance runs as he watches as the cannon power up, the light pulsing a glowing pink. The energy expands and dashes forward, reminding Lance of a scene from an old movie about space he had watched with his family when he was younger. As the light grows and begins to cover Lance's field of vision, the hairs on his arms prick up. 

The world is spinning. It feels like an old ride from a carnival his family went to when he was younger. A ride that spun round and round, glueing him to the wall. Small pieces of detritus ram into his body as he’s tossed and thrown. Lance feels the wind blasting against his face as well as chunks of dirt before he crashes into what he thinks is one of the buildings on the perimeter of the square. The remains of the razed building seem to blow inwards with him and everything stills as it falls to the ground. 

His body is throbbing stronger now. The waves of pain beginning in his chest and rolling outwards through his limbs. The cacophony of pain is felt through every individual injury, sharp as a whip. The ringing in his ears fades away to coughing and moaning through the wrecked square. 

Static blares in his ear as Keith's voice filters in right next to him. “Lance? Lance! I need you to answer me.” Oh, when did Keith get here? He’s pulling a beam off of Lance and tossing it to the side before rushing in to help. 

He manages to roll over into his hands and knees, the pain peaking momentarily before dulling, slightly. Keith is right there, crouching down, waiting to help if needed. The tumble of rubble sounds out as the debris settles around him. 

“I think I'm good.” Lance is almost shocked at how rough his voice sounds. It's rough like he ate a cinder block. “Just a little banged up.” That is, if ‘just a little banged up’ was code for ‘my limbs feel kind of tingly, my head is spinning, and I feel like an elephant decided I was its chair’.

“Lance.” It’s said tersely, in a way of Keith warning Lance to stay down for now. But, he just simply ignores it.

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

Lance manages to brush off the rest of the rubble, with Keith’s help, to peer around the smoking remains of the Jiang square. It looks as if some of the officials were hit by pieces of flying debris, as they lay scattered around intemingled with the broken remnants of the buildings. Allura seems to have escaped the carnage. She supports one of the diplomats, the village chief, he thinks, as she struggles to get to her feet. Their eyes meet across the square as she walks towards them, seeming to ask the same question without the need for words. “Are you okay?”

“You’ve got more ships headed towards you.” Shiro calls over the coms. Great. “We're on our way to help, but it's going to be a few dobashes.”

“Then, we’ll just have knock ‘em out ourselves,” Lance quips. Shouldn’t be too hard. Right? All they had to do was keep the attention on them and protect Allura and the villagers. “How long until they get here?”

“Thirty ticks at most.”

Huffing out a breath of air, Lance stumbles to his feet. All the while, trying his best to avoid the looks he’s getting from Keith. They need to focus on the mission. He hands Allura the relic and sends her back to the other villagers to do the ceremony before turning to Keith, to silence his protests. “Keith, I’m fine. We need to focus on the mission and keep people safe. Let’s get back to our Lions and stop the next wave.”

They barely get their Lions up in the air by the time the first fighter can be seen. They fly out to meet the ship away from the village, to prevent any further damage. Lance and Keith set to work, taking down the ships speedily. Lance can feel the tingling getting worse. I guess being blown through a wall will have that effect. His mind is running on autopilot, with major support from Blue keeping him present enough to press a few buttons here and there, but it’s getting harder to concentrate. The waves of pain are back now, radiating from his chest to his finger tips and toes, up to his head. With every jolting blast near Blue, the pain spikes before returning to the level before. 

Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge are here now. Lance only registers flashes of Green, Yellow, and Black across his vision, intermingled with blasts and explosions. Waves of concern are coming from Blue, as well as a calm feeling that brings a moment of clarity to Lance’s swirling head. A moment to see a stray plane headed back towards the village. A stray plane, almost like the one with the canon. No one else seems to have noticed it. Lance turns Blue towards the village, speeding after the lone fighter plane.

Lance shoots from the tail laser, pinpointing the plane, yet only chipping it. The plane spiral before crashing just short of the village. The pilot crawls out of the cockpit right as Lance gets there with Blue. 

“Lance, where are you? We’re almost done with the fleet of fighters,” Hunk asks as Lance begins to exit Blue. He draws out his bayard as he nears the fallen pilot, aiming the barrel of the gun at him.

“I went after a ship that was headed towards the village. I’ve got it covered, you guys clean up.” He tries to hide the roughness and pain of his voice, and, when no one pushes to comment on it, assumes the attempt was at least partly successful.

As he nears, the grounded pilot is rising to his feet, wiping blood from a cut above his eye. It’s not even a tick before the fighter lets out a growl and lurches forward to tackle Lance. His bayard goes off, firing a shot into the sky before Lance’s body smacks into the ground, head first. A fist plows into Lance’s face.He can feel the bruise forming on his cheekbone. Lance raises the gun enough to smack it back into the head of the Galran, knocking him off of Lance and to the side. The Galran rams back into Lance, reaching for the bayard. He grabs a hold of the gun in an attempt to pull it from Lance's grasp. He the fighter brings it back down, right into his left eye. A hand flies up on instinct to cover the eye, allowing the Galran to tug the bayard out of his grasp. The fighter rises, keeping a foot on Lance’s chest to keep him down. Lance is staring down the barrel of the gun. Bringing a leg up, Lance wraps it up and around the pilot’s hips, pushing back. The effect is instantaneous as him and the gun fall backwards. Effectively tossing his bayard far out of reach. Lance jumps forward, attempting to hold his foe down. Both roll on the ground, grappling to be on top. To be in control of the fight. But, they roll apart. 

It’s only a moment before both fighters are back on their feet, jumping into fighting stances. His head is starting to throb. His limbs are tingling again. All he has to do, is take down this guy. Then, he can get in a healing pod. He knows that he’s tilting slightly. He knows that his opponent has probably also noticed it. 

Taking advantage of Lance’s injured state, the Galran moves forward, bringing a leg up in a roundhouse kick. He doesn’t even feel the impact of the blow. He feels the hard dirt underneath his body. 

The world is swirling around him as he looks at the sky. Sound fades in and out as his vision comes in and out of focus. He hears a grunt of pain above him, and a thud as a body hits the ground.

“Lance?” Is that Keith? “Shiro, Lance is down.”

A blurry form enters his vision, which he thinks is Keith, judging by the outline of the mullet. He looks worried. He arms around his back and under his legs, and then the ground is gone. 

“Hang in, Lance. We’re going to get you to a pod.” The sky disappears and is replaced by a glowing red. What happened to the sky? Maybe it’s night time. Time to sleep. He’s so sleepy. 

He opens his eyes. The world is shaking. Why is it shaking? “Lance, you need to stay awake. You did a good job, but we’re not done yet.” Keith sounds so serious and worried. That means he must be pouting. He can see it. The pouty eyes, down turned lips, and mullet to tie it together. The angsty combo. He doesn’t like that look on Keith. 

“Hmm, w’did a g’d job,” he slurs. “W'r a good team.” He feels himself go limp as the darkness creeps in.


End file.
